Researchers have long considered the majority of those affected by autism to be mentally retarded. Although the numbers cited vary, they generally fall between 70 to 80 percent of the affected population. But when Meredyth Edelson, a researcher at Willamette University, went looking for the source of those statistics, she was surprised that she could not find anything conclusive. Many of the conclusions were based on intelligence tests that tend to overestimate disability in autistic people. "Our knowledge is based on pretty bad data," she says.

The Connection between Art and the Individual.I have had the opportunity of meeting a couple of art therapists – both before and during my time as an undergraduate in psychology – and found that the connection between the visual arts and psychology an interesting one. The essence of psychology is the study of the mind, of thought and thinking, and of behaviour. The visual arts could then be said to be, to some extent, the expression of thought and thinking. To borrow a term from Annie Vought, a California based artist who does cut paper art, a piece of work from an individual could be considered as an ‘emotional artefact’.